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The Tilted World by Tom Franklin and Beth Ann Fennelly

Ingersoll and Ham are two federal revenue agents sent to Hobnob, Mississippi to find out what happened to the other two “prohis” who were sent there weeks ago and close down the local still.To complicate matters the Mississippi River is rising.And rising.And rising some more.It is 1927, and for those who aren’t familiar with their Mississippi River history, the worst river flood in United States history is about to occur.To further complicate things Ham and Ingersoll find an orphaned baby on their way to Hobnob.Ingersoll is tasked with bringing the baby to the local orphanage but he can’t seem to leave the little guy there.Instead he asks around and is steered to Dixie Clay, a local Hobnob woman who had lost a very young son.Little does Ingersoll know he has just given the babe to the very person he is looking for.Yes, this still is run by a woman.Dixie Clay is an interesting woman, and despite her illegal profession, you can’t help but like her and be impressed with the business she has grown and how she has kept going despite all the hardships life has thrown at her.

I did an informal poll and I was glad to discover that I wasn’t the only one ignorant of the events of 1927.I had no idea that the Mississippi flooded so badly!The river was 60 miles wide at Memphis.Sixty miles!I was there a few years ago and I can’t even image the devastation that would have caused.An eye opening account of life around the Mississippi at the time and how the river’s rising was handled before, during and immediately after things went terribly wrong.